


Ten Years and Here We Are

by Sanctuaria



Series: Long Live the Orici [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Reunions post-torture, basically what all the Earth characters are doing while Adria plots, not heavily Sam/Jack necessarily but as much as they can be at work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 22:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18678859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctuaria/pseuds/Sanctuaria
Summary: Sam/Jack outtakes from Reign. Best read in conjunction with that story.





	Ten Years and Here We Are

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to keep Reign in Adria's POV, but some pieces occurring on Earth seemed that they had to be told for the story to be complete even if Adria wasn't there to witness the consequences of her actions. So, here we are.
> 
> This first outtake takes place in the middle of Chapter 14 of Reign, after Adria sends Sam back to Earth.

A white light blotted out everything, obscuring her vision momentarily. Distantly she knew it was a rings platform, but all of that was somewhere behind the fuzziness of her brain and the sharp, incessant pain in her thigh, obliterating all thought of much else in her mind. 

Then, pavement. Blue sky. Clouds. Off in the distance, trees, their leaves blowing in the breeze. Sam’s eyes filled with tears, whether at the sight she’d never really thought she’d see again or at the pain in her leg she couldn’t tell. 

There was shouting, the sound of footsteps. Then...nothing. 

* * *

A warm weight encased her hand, gripping tighter when one of her fingers twitched involuntarily out of curiosity. Her eyelids cracked open, taking in the gray tones of…somewhere. Almost immediately, a white light shone in her right eye, and she jerked away at the memory of the rings. The movement set off waves of agony in her skull.

“Sam,” a voice said, and the light appeared again, this time in her other eye. The infirmary. 

“Janet?” Sam croaked, finding her throat unspeakably dry. 

There was a pregnant pause. “No,” the same voice said, “no, it’s Dr. Lam.”

Sam squinted, her eyes finally focusing on the concerned face of the doctor. Janet was… dead. Dead for almost three years. How could she have forgotten that? 

“Right, sorry,” she forced out of her uncooperative throat. 

“How do you feel?” Dr. Lam asked, setting down the pen light. 

“Water,” Sam requested. The warm weight on her hand suddenly decreased, and she turned her head to see Jack reaching for the cup and straw at her bedside. “Sir!”

“Hey, Carter,” he said softly, handing her the cup. “How do you feel?”

She searched her body, feeling no pain, only fuzziness. “Medicated,” she decided. 

Dr. Lam cracked a smile, looking relieved. “Well, you are that. I’ll leave you two alone for a minute, shall I?” With one last backward glance, she exited swiftly. 

Sam sat back, trying to process. How had she ended up here? “Adria sent me back,” she said finally. 

Jack nodded. 

“You weren’t supposed to trade anything for me,” Sam accused, though there was no venom in it. Just a tiredness that she felt deep in her bones. 

Her former CO shrugged. “Better to give her an Origin infomercial than have her start a plague.”

She grimaced. “So it had nothing to do with me.”

Jack met her eyes. “I didn’t say that.” Picking up the clipboard on the side table, he added, “But you’re also our best source of intel about Adria and her army. The IOA wants to know what the hell’s going on up there, and so do I.”

Sam frowned. “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t remember.”

Jack’s voice was gentle, his hand over hers again. If he knew that his thumb was automatically stroking the inside of her wrist, he didn’t show it. “I know it can’t have been a picnic, Carter. Anything you remember could be useful.”

She shook her head slightly, looking down, searching her memories. “I don’t...everything’s muddled…”

“What about Daniel, Teal’c, and Vala?” Jack asked. “Do you remember them being there with you? Are they all right?”

Sam hesitated, then nodded slowly, teeth beginning to worry her lower lip. “They were there. They’re alive, I think. But Adria…” Her eyebrows knit together in concentration, trying to remember something...anything...these were her  _ teammates _ for chrissake… “She tortured Vala...to get to Daniel…” Pure, white hot pain erupted in her skull, and her hands jerked up to press against the sides of her head as her eyes squeezed shut against it. Various smaller machines attached to the IV drip and heart monitor on her hand were knocked off the table and went clattering onto the floor or bed. It felt like the blades of a blender were ripping through her brain.

“Carter!” she heard O’Neill shout in the background under a thick blanket of white noise, the loudest buzzing she’d ever heard. She could feel his hands in her hair, covering her own, holding gently. “Carter!” Then, “Dr. Lam!”

“It’s okay,” Sam croaked out. “I’m okay.” And she was—the pain was fading now, not so sharp or all-consuming. She took a deep breath, slowly lowering her hands from their position of locked around her head, looking up into the concerned faces of the doctor—who was now hurriedly taking her vitals by hand—and Jack. She focused her attention on him. “I can try again. It’s in me somewhere, the information—”

“Sam,” he said, shaking his head.

“—and I can find it, if I try hard enough. I can help them,” she said stubbornly. 

“Sam,” he repeated. 

She looked at him. “I  _ have _ to help.”

“You will,” he promised. “Later.”

“With all due respect, sir, I can do this  _ now _ ,” Sam insisted. 

“You will not,” Dr. Lam told her from somewhere to her right. She ignored her. 

“Sam,” Jack said, one final time. It was his gaze that melted her, let her drop the bravado she’d been holding onto for dear life since the  _ Odyssey _ . 

“We have to get them back,” she said, vision becoming blurred with unwanted tears. He reached out and she shifted herself closer to him, leaning into his warmth and steadiness like a lifeline. Jack’s arms wrapped around her shoulders, one hand cradling the nape of her neck and his fingers threading through her sullied, unkempt hair. 

“We will.”


End file.
